Ammo shortages have summer camps scrambling for riflery rounds

A nationwide ammunition shortage has triggered a dilemma for local summer camps with riflery ranges: they can’t find enough .22-caliber rounds to keep campers firing at targets into next summer.

By Nathaniel AxtellTimes-News Staff Writer

A nationwide ammunition shortage has triggered a dilemma for local summer camps with riflery ranges: they can’t find enough .22-caliber rounds to keep campers firing at targets into next summer.The shortage has become so acute that some, including Camp Greystone in Tuxedo, have switched to air rifles in order to keep their shooting programs on target. Others like Camp Ton-A-Wandah changed to cartridges without gunpowder, but then those grew scarce.Girls have been learning about the “finesse of shooting and getting a good shot off” at Ton-A-Wandah’s riflery range since around 1933, said Camp Director Garrett Graham. The camp uses about 15,000 rounds of .22-caliber ammo each summer, but next season’s marksmanship remains a shot in the dark.“We have enough to get us through the camping season, but anything beyond that, it’s not readily available,” Graham said. “It’s pretty hard to find in the quantities we need. You have to be creative and find it where you can.”At the suggestion of one supplier, the camp switched from regular .22 long ammo to Aguila Colibri cartridges, which contain a primer but no gunpowder. Able to propel a bullet 75 to 100 feet, they were perfect for the camp’s National Rifle Association-certified range.“The velocity shoots straight and after it reaches that threshold, it falls off,” said Graham. “But that’s all the distance we needed and they’re a lot quieter. (The campers) wear hearing protection anyway, but it’s nice for sensitive ears.”Now even those rounds have become nearly impossible to find in bulk, Graham said. And Ton-A-Wandah isn’t alone in its hunt for adequate ammunition supplies.“We keep enough for a year’s worth ahead, for the purposes of running our operation,” said Yates Pharr, co-owner of Falling Creek Camp in Tuxedo. “We have not been able to buy ammo in the past year, and we’re obviously trying to buy for 2014 and we haven’t been able to, just like everybody else.”With a strong emphasis on safety, Falling Creek’s eight certified instructors teach campers to shoot .22 caliber rifles from the prone, sitting, kneeling and standing positions. A retired Marine colonel oversees the program, Pharr said, and “it’s a tight ship.” As the president of the N.C. Youth Camp Association, Pharr has heard of other camps switching to air rifles because .22-caliber shells were too hard to find.“I would prefer not to go that route,” Pharr said. “I would rather shoot traditional .22s, but everybody is experiencing the same problem.”Falling Creek’s “sister camp,” Camp Greystone, couldn’t find the 75,000 rounds of .22 ammo it needed for campers to shoot on its 50-foot rifle range for NRA patches and certificates this summer. So Camp Director Jim Miller invested in some “German-made, Olympic-grade” air rifles.“They’re incredibly accurate, the girls love them, so there was no hardship when it came right down to it,” Miller said. The shortage of .22 ammo “surprised most people,” said Matt Jones, who co-owns Rex’s Indoor Range in East Flat Rock with his brother, Michael. Their business still gets enough .22 ammo to keep their loyal clientele supplied, he said, but providing local camps with 20,000 to 30,000 rounds “would wipe us out.”He said talk of gun control in Congress seems to have fueled more ammo stockpiling among gun owners, including “preppers,” survivalists who assemble enough food, ammunition and supplies to withstand long periods of political or social unrest. But demand seems to have eased up in the last three weeks, Jones said, and manufacturers are slowly catching up.Jones said there have been ammunition shortages in the past, but “not .22s, and not to this level. I think people have realized they can buy a lot of rounds and it’s the cheapest one to buy.” Reach Axtell at 828-694-7860 or than.axtell@blueridgenow.com.